Houston Chronicle covered the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance's 2020 jobs fact sheet. Read excerpts below and the entire Houston Chronicle piece here (sub. req.).
Jobs in renewable energy, battery storage and energy efficiency grew 4 percent last year in Texas, nearly twice as fast as the overall employment rate, according to a new study.
The advanced energy sector - which also includes products and services in solar, wind and nuclear power, biofuels, and even hybrid and electric vehicles - employed 254,000 workers in Texas last year, surpassing real estate, which employed 231,000 and chemical manufacturing with 83,000, according to the energy industry trade group Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance. Employers in the sector were planning to increase their workforce by 5 percent, or 12,700 workers, this year...
The industry instead lost about 10 percent of its workforce, about 25,000 jobs, since the pandemic began to spread in March. But it has regained an estimated 8,000 jobs in June.
"With above-average job growth in the past and more expected coming into this year, advanced energy should play a big role in our state's economic recovery from the impact of the coronavirus," said Suzanne Bertin, managing director of the alliance...
In Texas, employment in energy efficiency, which includes heating and air conditioning systems, efficient lighting and appliances, represents the biggest advanced energy category in Texas, with 169,400 jobs last year, according to the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance...
Read the entire Houston Chronicle piece here (sub. req.).